Venture capital fund · 4 deals
Every published round K1W1 took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyades | Pre-seed | Jul 2026 | $910k | Participant | aistartupsnews.com, ontargetish.com, SmartCompany | |
| Appetise | Series A | 20 Feb 2026 | $7m | Participant | Startup Daily, SmartCompany, Ten13, Forbes Australia, OIF Ventures portfolio, Ten13 portfolio | |
| Excellent | Pre-seed | 13 Sep 2022 | NZ$2m (A$1.8m) | Participant | Blackbird Ventures portfolio, Startup Daily | |
| Foundry Lab | Series A | 3 Dec 2021 | $11.3m | Participant | SmartCompany, Blackbird Ventures portfolio, Startup Daily |
Companies K1W1 has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appetise | Meal planning and grocery shopping app monetising consumer data for FMCG brands, formerly… | 20 Feb 2026, Series A | 1 | 0 |
| Excellent | 13 Sep 2022, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Foundry Lab | On-demand metal casting for rapid, sovereign manufacturing | 3 Dec 2021, Series A | 1 | 0 |
| Hyades | Builds AI models from map-based data such as satellite imagery, drone footage and radar | Jul 2026, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for K1W1, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies K1W1 has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal K1W1 did.
Stories naming K1W1. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Roundup of four trans-Tasman raises: First Table, Metacognition AI, Dela and GoTroppo secured a combined $21.5 million for restaurant discounting, robotics software, scam-safe payments and flexible internet plans.
Roundup of seven raises across the Tasman spanning fintech, marine tech, agtech, defence and AI, plus a first close for an ACT venture fund.
Roundup of three early-stage AI raises: BlueNexus's $2 million seed, Hyades's NZ$910,000 pre-seed plus a research grant, and ESGAgent's undisclosed round. All three companies are pre-revenue.
Roundup of three ANZ raises: BlueNexus' $2m seed led by M31 Capital, Hyades' NZ$1.1m pre-seed with Icehouse Ventures plus an R&D grant, and ESGAgent.ai's $725,000 seed led by DNX Ventures.
Roundup of the week's Australian startup funding: fresh raises for five companies, Startmate's Summer '26 accelerator intake of 19 startups, and Affinda's acquisition of Pathfindr.
Also Startup Daily
Ten13's post sets out its reasons for backing Appetise's A$7 million Series A with OIF, Icehouse, NZVC and K1W1, highlighting the grocery platform's shopper dataset and growth.
New Zealand customer messaging startup Atomic.io closed a Series A led by Movac, with several Xero figures investing, and is expanding into Australia with a Melbourne base.
Diagnostics firm Pictor raised $6.1 million led by Marko Bogoievski and K1W1, and unveiled a partnership with US laboratory provider Mobility Health to launch its COVID-19 antibody test across several markets.
New Zealand forest-carbon assessor CarbonCrop has banked a NZ$1.9 million top-up before its planned Series A; Jo Blundell takes the CEO role while co-founder Nick Butcher shifts to CTO.
Icehouse Ventures has made a first NZ$5 million close toward a $20 million second ArcAngels fund for women-led startups, with Gattung, Rowsell and K1W1 among backers; its predecessor fund backed 31 ventures.
New Zealand microphone startup Dotterel Technologies raised NZ$3 million (A$2.8m) led by Icehouse Ventures, with Peter Beck, K1W1, NZVC and private investors backing production and expansion of its long-distance Konos microphone.